2018 The Bigness

We made a Tempranillo in 2012 and 2013 called “The Bigness,” but we cast the label aside after changes to our fruit sourcing. The wine barely lived up to the name anyways, but we loved that label and were a little sad to let go of it. We figured we’d never it again since we don’t make many wines that qualify for such an illustrious title... Enter this blend of Petite Sirah and Syrah from House Mountain Vineyard in Page Springs, AZ. After a long stretch of rain slowed harvest in late-August, September started drying up and the sugars in these two blocks started jumping. There were a few logistical challenges in the race to get the fruit off the vine and we couldn’t pick until it was over 25 Brix. Sugars soaked up another 0.5-1 Brix after we got the fruit fermenting and both wines finished around 15.5% alcohol. They tasted good and handled the alcohol very well, but they were a little too much of one thing on their own. Hoping to preserve the “Verde Valley” identity of this fruit, we tried the two wines as a blend and were amazed at what a complete and delicious wine it made – each varietal really picked up where the other left off. This wine is big and intense, but it has that Verde Valley restraint giving it much more grace and nuance than one might expect. It’s big, and it’s beautiful! Only four barrels produced.